COPHy 2023: Durability associated with multi-target therapies is superior to anti-VEGF mono-target therapy in AMD

Antonio Campos, MD, PhD, made a presentation at the Congress on Controversies in Ophthalmology. He discusses his position on a discussion titled Durability Associated with Multi-target Therapies is Superior to anti-VEGF Mono-target Therapy in AMD with David Hutton, Executive Editor, Ophthalmology Times.®

Video transcript

Editor’s note: This transcript has been edited for clarity

David Hutton:

Hello, I'm David Hutton of Ophthalmology Times.® The 14th annual Congress on controversies in Ophthalmology is being held this year in Lisbon, Portugal. At the event physicians present the pros and cons on a number of topics. Dr. Antonio Campos defended the negative position on a discussion titled Durability Associated with Multi-target Therapies is Superior to anti-VEGF Mono-target Therapy in AMD. Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your discussion.

Antonio Campos, MD, PhD:

This is related mainly with the new faricimab versus aflibercept. And we know that angiopoietin-2 is not elevated in several cases of AMD, and 42% of the patients in the TENAYA and LUCERNE studies didn't have actually angiopoietin-2 levels elevated. Besides, there's another blocker of angiopoietin-2 that was used in ONYX trial of nesvacumab that didn't prove to be effective. And one should expect that in diabetic retinopathy studies and the recent BALATON and communal studies of retinal vein occlusion, where angiopoietin-2 is really elevated that the dual-action blocking angiopoietin-2 should have better results. But actually, that didn't prove to be right. So we must not forget that faricimab has a higher dosage than aflibercept [inaudible]. Well, the completion of the study was not perfect, and probably dosage and bioavailability will respond for most of the differences. According to my position, regulatory authorities, such as FDA and MA in Europe, also pointed out that it's not proven that there is an effective dual blocking mechanism in those medicines.

*Anat Loewenstein presented the affirmative position on this topic.